In Hollywood's latest big-money deal with China, former Walt Disney studio chairman Dick Cook on Monday launched his own entertainment company with $150 million from a Chinese investment group, the Los Angeles Times reports. The new L.A.-based entity, called Dick Cook Studios, will focus on creating family-oriented movies, TV shows and other entertainment.

Chinese film production company Huayi Bros. Media Corp. has closed a major film slate deal with Robert Simonds' new movie and television studio, Burbank-based STX Entertainment, highlighting the growing business ties between Hollywood and China. ...

Claiming a trail of corporate espionage from Canada to China and then to an office on West Magnolia Boulevard, IMAX Corp. has accused a Burbank company and its international affiliates of using stolen technology to distribute IMAX copycat giant-screen...

The birthrate in America has fallen to an all-time low, with one in five women not having children in 2010, compared to one in 10 in the 1970s.
In Orange County, the rate has dropped from 50,000 a year in the '90s to about 38,000 in 2011. Many couples...

Firstly, not one of us wants a vacant store. We want an environmentally responsible, financially sound, properly permitted business up and running.
We’d prefer that company be one that doesn't just “fill the need” for low priced...

Roughly 1,500 protestors on Saturday morning picketed outside ABC’s headquarters in Burbank to rally against Jimmy Kimmel after his nightly show aired a segment saying the United States should “kill everyone in China.”
Burbank police said they responded to the protest in the 2300 block of Riverside Drive after some demonstrators were rallying in a restricted area. Still, police said the protest was peaceful and no one was arrested.
The protest was part of a nationwide move backed...

China Film Co. Ltd., the largest film distributor in China, has invested in two forthcoming movies from Legendary Entertainment, the Burbank-based film finance and production company.
Legendary East, an affiliated company of Legendary Entertainment, said on Monday afternoon that China Film Co. made "an over eight figure equity investment" in the films "Seventh Son" and "Warcraft," the Los Angeles Times reports.
If the pictures are approved for release in China, China Film Co. will distribute them...

A teacher from Iowa was walking her dog three months ago in Chengdu, China, when she stumbled upon a starving, partially paralyzed Belgian Shepherd who followed her home.
The teacher took the dog, whom she named Bert, to the veterinarian, where he was treated for tapeworms and fleas.
She knew he needed help, but struggled with the idea of leaving him in a local shelter filled with thousands of other dogs.
What followed was a global rescue mission that included a number of animal advocacy groups both...

The letters defending Walmart in the Dec. 14 Leader — “Crime isn’t any worse at Walmart” and “Can’t wait for Walmart to arrive” — are laughable because they reflect a total ignorance of the destructive effects that the retailer has had on American workers.
The authors' main concern appears to be that they have easy access to cheap, Chinese-made goods.
There are very good reasons why many cities have fought hard to keep Walmart out. Walmart has destroyed...

This is regarding the letter by Thomas Saito on Wednesday titled “Walmart and the American worker.”
I have a question. What is the difference between the cheap Chinese goods sold by Walmart and the more expensive Chinese goods, some exactly the same, sold by Target, Best Buy, Costco, Macy's, etc.?
Stores other than Walmart sell both cheap and expensive Chinese goods. Check out the toys at Toys R Us. It is hard to find anything that isn't made in China, whether it is cheap or not.
Betty...

I will try to cover everything.
The area where Walmart is going to be located is isolated from the rest of the Empire Center. They have their own large parking lot and traffic is always awful in that area.
It's hard to find American-made items at Walmart? It's hard to find American made items at any store. The U.S. may view China with suspicion, but it's our corporations sending the work over there.
Encourage workers to go to the emergency room? The person still has to pay for it, out of pocket. It'...

Woodbury University is extending its reach east, helping to launch a customized MBA program in Beijing that is designed to prepare automobile industry executives for a global economy.
The Carl Benz Academy has launched a three-year pilot program in collaboration with Mercedes-Benz China and the Burbank campus, as well as Peking University in China and Free University of Berlin.
In an email from the kick-off earlier this week in Beijing, Andre van Niekerk, dean of Woodbury University’s business...